Ryan Glasspiegel
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Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero are reporting that the NFL is planning to do a 17-game, 18-week season in 2021-22. While this isn’t a formal announcement, it’s as close as you can get to that as these reporters work for the league-owned media arm and it’s thus impossible to see a scenario where their report is inaccurate.
Players have resisted a season expansion for years. However, this is a time that makes sense for them to agree to it so as to mitigate the impact on the salary cap next season that will come from the fact that there have been little to no fans in the stands this season — and the corresponding drop in shared revenue. Getting one week of extra TV money can help ease that pain now.
Next season will still start when it was originally planned, which means that the Super Bowl will be pushed back a week. Hopefully this brings us closer to a point where Super Bowl Monday and President’s Day get combined into a bona fide national holiday.
There is a reason players have resisted expansion. I’m not a proponent of being “soft”. I’m merely saying Their bodies go through tremendous amount of beating.
How many games do we need? Too many games and you have what the Browns had last week —> TOP 4 WR out for the game due to injury . And you get garbage quality football.
I want to see a healthy Josh Allen vs. a healthy Pat Mahomes / Ben Reothlisberger etc for the playoffs.
Yeah, I agree with all of this (although the Browns thing was Covid-related, I do believe).
Meh.
One of the things that make the NFL the best league is that it’s also the shortest season. There’s plenty of time off to miss the game. Dragging in on like all the other major league sports will diminish it. Like when McDonalds tried to put the McRib on the regular menu.